Hong Kong’s Food Education Program – Think.Cook.Save. 香港飲食教育 – 我.惜.食.

Living in a city allows us to rely heavily on fast food and processed food. In Hong Kong, children grow up in the culture of fast food restaurants, supermarkets and convenience stores, just like many other places in the world. Every day after the school bell rings, you will see all the happy faces running to the nearby fast food place to get their deep-fried chicken wings, sausages and fish Siu Mai (which is supposed to be steamed fish dumpling, but the ingredients contain no fish, only chemical additives and preservatives). They choose what they eat by convenience and savour, strong savour.

城市人常依賴快餐及加工食物。香港的孩子也不例外，伴隨他們成長的是快餐店、超級市場及便利店。

Think.Cook.Save. Health & Food Education

I truly believe a healthy body is the prerequisite for children to graduate from schools and to achieve their dreams. The food education program I designed and launched in Hong Kong named “Think.Cook.Save. Health & Food Education” is aimed to provide free and quality basic food education to our primary and secondary students.

The program includes an interactive presentation and cooking demonstration with lots of student participation so that the students can acquire basic cooking techniques. The program will enable them to tell the difference between processed food and real food, as well as how to choose healthy food for themselves. In addition, students will also learn the “FOOD” concept, designing balanced meals with five grains, organic fruits & vegetable, omega‐3 & protein and water.

For the first year, our team will work with 70 schools and will publish a Health and Food Education Kit. Through the Education Kit, we hope parents, teachers or any interested volunteers can provide quality health & food education to children, or even adults, around them. Knowing our food is the first step to improve our quality of life.

Thanks to our partners, Chef Alvina Chan and Towngas Cooking Centre, the program so far runs quite well. Also, I need to thank Etpress for publishing the education kit for us and Skypost as our media partner for helping spread the words.

特別鳴謝合作伙伴陳彥琳小姐 (琳琳) 及媒氣烹飪中心的全力協助及支持。經濟日報出版社為我們出版教育書籍及晴報成為我們的媒體伙伴。

An action of a 5 year-old boy

I have included my friend and her family to one of our previous programs, which is a fun cooking day with underprivileged families, and the other day she told me: “I am so grateful you have invited us to join the program. My boy asked for water today instead of soda, and he went to his room to count the coins he saved in his piggy bank. He told me he wants to give half of his savings to the people in need.” This is the reason and motive for me to keep going!

About the Author: Beatrice Chan (@bechanka) is the daughter of chef Chan Tung, who had been ranked as one of the top 10 chefs in China and the top 4 in Hong Kong before he passed away. She writes about food and travel and joined the ambassador program in 2002. She had launched a food education program aimed to push forward food education, urban farming and anti-food waste campaign in Hong Kong. She is also the mastermind behind an Asia-based community project: http://www.go.asia, http://www.facebook.com/frd.asia, https://frd.asia/